Head of children’s club arrested for sexually abusing boys

The respected head of a Moscow children’s seamanship club has reportedly pled guilty to more than 10 acts of sexual assault on his charges, shocking the kids’ parents, some of whom still refuse to believe it.

The head of the Young Eaglets of the Fleet patriotic club, Vasily Midtsev, reportedly admitted to sexually assaulting his students on at least 10 occasions between 2006 and 2011, the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper reported.The police haven’t confirmed the information so far.     Meanwhile, a scan of a letter allegedly written by the suspect has been posted on a social network, claiming Midtsev made the confession under pressure.     The 51 year old was detained by Moscow police on May 17 after law enforcement officers received over 20 claims from parents that their children had been raped. Only children under 14 years old were accepted into the Young Eaglets of the Fleet club, which was established in the capital some 25 years ago. A veteran of Russia’s Pacific Fleet, Midtsev taught children seamanship and organized trips to various regions of the country. According to Moskovsky Komsomolets, he also took his sailor boys to the port of Severomorsk, the headquarters of the Russian Northern Fleet, to practice on the “Peter the Great” heavy missile cruiser where, according to the children, the grown-up man often took them with him to the so-called “presidential suite,” where Vladimir Putin once stayed. The alleged victims were able to very accurately describe the design of the luxurious suite – they even remembered the color of the towels in its sauna. Though the police possess no videotaped evidence, text messages between Midtsev and the children reveal the perverse nature of the relationship between the teacher and his wards. It has been reported that Midtsev asked the children to get rid of the text messages, but some of them were not deleted.  The alleged pedophile turned out to be a really good psychologist who knew how to earn the respect of the teenagers and make them willfully accept his harassment. “I’m lying in my bed, waiting for you. Hop in,” one of the kids reportedly wrote to Midtsev. The Young Eaglets treated their teacher like god, calling him “Commodore” and obeying his every word.   The text messages allegedly show that on some occasions the head of the club had encounters with three children at a time.  Police say the man’s love for children was so strong that he dedicated poems to them, all ending with the same line: “Remember that Midtsev was in your life.” In an interview three years ago, the Young Eaglets of the Fleet leader said:  “there are no drug addicts or alcoholics among my pupils. Smoking isn’t in our club’s tradition either.”But during a check of the organization’s office, a huge amount of booze was found, including a box of special vodka bottles with a portrait of Midtsev himself and a label directing the Eaglets to consume the drink cold. Cigarettes as well as an encyclopedia on unconventional sex were also uncovered in the club.  It is believed that Midtsev could have destroyed most of the clues as he allegedly tried to cover up his traces in the last days before his arrest. He took hard drives out of his computers at home and in his office, and made an attempt to move in with his wife, from whom he had been separated for several years. When detained, the alleged pedophile had a plane ticket to Latvia in his pocket.  The thing that amazed the investigators the most was how Midtsev could stay undiscovered for so many years. But it appeared he was getting on with the kids so well that some parents were even feeling jealous.  "Midtsev gave the impression of a highly educated person,” an unnamed city official said. “After serving in the navy, he received higher education at the Pedagogical Institute, graduating from the faculty of history. He knew four languages (at least, he said so). He was welcome in the administration’s office.”  Incredible as it may sound, some parents and their children organized a rally at the doorsteps of the club and demanded that the authorities stop “criminal proceedings,” calling Midtsev “a victim of a provocation.” Pupils who are part of the case as witnesses and victims were also there, and they cried when told that their “Commodore” may face jail time.